Dead Man's Cove (Laura Marlin Mysteries 1): Book 1

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year old Laura is an orphan. Her father, an American soldier, disappeared long before she was born, and her mother died during childbirth. All her life, Laura has lived at the Sylvan Meadow's Children Home. Always hoping and dreaming of finding a home where she can stay longer than half a day because she is fussy. And then finally, such a dream comes true. Her uncle, her mother's brother, is found, and agrees to take her in. She moves to Cornwall to live with her uncle and immediately falls in love with it. The Tiger who Came to Teaby Judith Kerr. I fell in love with the smiley, chubby tiger in Judith Kerr’s classic picturebook during one hot Zimbabwe summer when I had to read it four or five times a day to my niece. If it had been up to her I’d have read it even more frequently. Each time I got to the end, she pleaded for us to begin again. Pure genius. Laura has always wanted to be a detective. Her idol being Matt Walker, a character in a series of books. And soon, mysteries begin to surround her in St Ives. What are the Mukthars hiding? Who is J? And what is her uncle hiding. Laura Marlin is a brilliant detective story written by one of the best children's writers out there, Lauren St John, who has recently won the Blue Peter award.

A character I found interesting was Mr. Calvin Redfern who was the uncle of Laura Marlin. In the story he was described as a “disheveled one-eyed tyrant who arrived into town in the dead of night”, and I thought what this means was that nobody knew him well and that he just appeared from somewhere one day. Later on, in the story he is revealed to be a detective that moved into town because of a tragic accident but is being followed by a gang who wants to seek revenge. I thought he was interesting because in the beginning he looked like a normal person who might have had a very bad past and moved in to start a new life but then it turns out that he is actually a detective undercover and solving a mystery. I also think that his character is very important in the story. I liked the opening of the story, the chapter size (just the right length for a newly-fluent reader), the characters and the setting of St. Ives which I must now visit but what holds the whole thing together is Laura who is a well-crafted and relatable character in that she is a flawed as she is adventurous. I'm all for scarred and flawed heroes and St. John has done a great job with Laura. It seems that orphaned children finding out they have flawed yet deeply interesting relations who step up to look after them is a slice of narrative planning that works well. Middle grade mysteries are among my favourite books to read because they're so much fun and Dead Man's Cove certainly isn't short of mysteries to figure out. Why is the cove so dangerous? Is Tariq, the shopkeeper's quiet son, who he appears to be? Why is the housekeeper, Mrs Webb, so mean? Does her uncle really work in the fisheries? And what does Laura have to do to find her place in St Ives? Dead Man's Cove was (to my delight!) much more complicated and darker than expected, but it also leaves you nostalgic for a childhood you (likely) never had, full of breakfast by the sea, accompanied by a loyal Siberian Husky named Skye, roaming sand the 'colour of a Labrador puppy'. It made me miss living by the sea while I was at university, waking up to seagulls every morning.Dead Man's Cove was the first book chosen for my monthly book club. I had been wanting to read it for a while because it sounded like a perfect middle grade adventure and mystery in the vein of Enid Blyton, plus the cover is stunning! Dead Man's Cove is the first story in the Laura Marlin Mysteries series, following 11-year-old Laura as she works on becoming an ace detective, inspired by her favourite fictional detective Matt Walker. Laura is living in Sylvan Meadow's Children's Home when she is discovered by her uncle, Calvin Redfern, and taken to live in St Ives, Cornwall, where her detective skills are about to be put to use. Lauren St Johngrew up surrounded by horses and wild animals on a farm and game reserve in Zimbabwe, the inspiration for her memoir, Rainbow’s End. After studying journalism, she relocated to the UK, where she spent nearly a decade on the European and PGA Tours as golf correspondent to the SundayTimes. She also wrote the acclaimed music biography Hardcore Troubadour: The Life & Near Death of Steve Earle. She is the author of the multi-award- winning The White Giraffe series for children, as well as the Laura Marlin mysteries, the first of which, Dead Man’s Cove, won the 2011 Blue Peter Book of the Year Award. Her bestselling One Dollar Horse series was followed by YA horse romance, The Glory, now optioned for film.

Of course, we can’t ignore the fact that this is a children’s book – and with a main character aged 11, it is probably targetting 8-10 year olds as its main audience. One of the best things about Dead Man’s Cove is it manages to do everything I’ve mentioned above, keeping the prose simple enough for an 8 year old, yet without being condescending. I can’t say exactly what issues are being dealt with within the book without giving too much of the story away, but they are serious and complicated issues. Dead Man’s Cove challenges its audience, confronts them with some of the stark realities of the world, and it’s all the better for it. When orphaned Laura Marlin is sent from the children’s home to live with her uncle in Cornwall, she dreams of a life of excitement just like the characters in her favourite detective novels. But when she gets to Uncle Calvin’s spooky house, she is confronted with mysteries. Nothing is as it seems. Is Tariq, the shopkeeper’s silent son, a friend or an enemy? Why does her uncle seem so intent on hiding his past? And why is everyone so afraid of Dead Man’s Cove? When Laura finds a message in a bottle, she starts to investigate. But this deadly quest will test her detective skills to the limit – and put her on a collision course with villains who will stop at nothing to get their own way. Laura’s adventures begin in this first captivating mystery from the bestselling author of the White Giraffe series. After she arrives in St. Ives, where her uncle lives, she finds all sorts of mysteries that call out to her to be solved: What is her uncle's real occupation? Why does he forbid her to go to Dead Man's Cove? Why has the silent boy Tariq, who lives with an Indian couple who run a grocery store, suddenly rejected her friendship? Who has been leaving her messages in a bottle? These are only a few of the puzzles that Laura's curiosity won't let her leave unsolved. I really liked the way that St John wrote the novel. It flowed really well; nothing was too awkward about it. I also found it was really easy to read for younger audiences, without making it too young sounding. Each character definitely had their own manner of speaking throughout the entire story that made it easy to know who was speaking at different parts. This book dealt with a lot of things like abuse, slavery, gangs, and poverty-causing debt. All of the subjects, I thought, were kind of mature for a book written for ten-year-olds, but it was written in a very tasteful fashion meant for a younger audience. Even though this book was meant for a younger audience, I enjoyed it. It made me really nostalgic of when I was younger, and I wanted to be a detective. Even though that's no longer my ambition, I could still relate to the main character nonetheless.What was up with her uncle? I knew it very fast, and then it was fun reading to see how long it took Laura to figure it all out. I did think it took her quite some time, and it was mostly due to her stalking her uncle in the night and overhearing a conversation. :P Oh, oh, and thank you author for writing a girl character with short hair. It doesn't happen that often that girls have short hair. And I know that as a kid I would have loved this book. Because when I was a kid (and quite some time afterwards again) I had supershort hair. However so many girl characters have long/semi-long hair. :( Laura's an orphan who has spent most o her life in a children's home, dreaming of long-lost relatives coming to find her. When an uncle suddenly does come to claim her and bring her to live with him in his seaside home in a small Cornish town, Laura is excited to begin her new life. But while her uncle is kind and gives her plenty of things she's never had in her life (including a doggo friend), he's not so generous with his time, always busy with some vague assignments and working at strange hours. Laura also can't work out if the shopkeeper's boy actually wants to be friends with her or not, and there's lots of suspicious and worrying things happening with him and his family, which of course Laura must investigate. I bought this one during my vacation in 2018, so almost 6 months ago, but never was in the mood to read this one. Oh boy, past me, why why? Because as soon as I started this one I was totally in the story. I wanted to read on and on and on. It’s a charming little detective story, without being cutesy. There’s real threat and real danger, and serious issues explored within the narrative. Laura is a great character – very relatable, and admirable. She’s independent, intelligent, brave and loyal, but she has her flaws too, making her rounded and believable.

If I'd have read Kat Wolfe Investigates after reading this, instead of the other way around, I think I might have felt a little cheated. They are similar in a lot of ways, and while Kat Wolfe feels a lot like a more current and updated version of Laura Marlin, it left me feeling this book was a little left behind and forgotten, but I think I enjoyed it more than Kat Wolfe.

Five Run Away Togetherby Enid Blyton. I think I read my first Famous Five novel when I was six and I was hooked from that moment on. Sure there are bits of that have dated and Enid Blyton is not the world’s greatest prose stylist. But decades on, the appeal of the Famous Five is as strong as ever. Impossible to resist. Her uncle, Calvin Redfern is a very intriguing character. Whenever he's around, you get the sense that there's something hidden about him. - secrets. A truly outstanding, totally enthralling mystery set in Cornwall, England, this is one of the very best children's mysteries I've ever read. The heroine, 11-year-old orphan Laura Marlin, has been rescued from the children's home by her mysterious uncle, Calvin Redfern. Laura loves books, especially detective stories, and wants to become a detective like her favorite fictional detective, Matt Walker.